Hydro-Electric Developments in SwitzerlandSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Oct., 1933), pp. 378-380Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/15617 .

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378 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

HYDRO-ELECTRIC DEVELOPMENTS IN SWITZERLAND

IN Switzerland, the country of the "white cocl," as electricity is called there, another important step in the electrification of the country has been accomplished by the construction of a large seasonal storage plant, the Ober- hasli Hydro-Electric Development, above Meiringen in the Bernese Oberland. Construction work on the first step of

natural flow of water takes place during the six summer months, it was essential to create huge -storage basins, to have the water collected d'uring the summer avail- able for earrying the high peak of power demand during the winter. Nature of- fered very favorable conditions, and en- gineers found it practical to create two large artificial lakes. The larger, Grim-

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GRIMISEL LAKE IN THE BERNESE OBERLAND IT HAS BEEN CREATED BY THE CONSTRUCTION OF TWO DAMS, THE SEEUFEREO DAM IN THE FORE-

GROUND AND THE SPITALLMMm DAM IN THE CENTER OF THE PICTURE.

this huge project was completed recently and the Handeck Generating Station turned over to regular operation last fall.

The entire development utilizes the precipitations 'as well as the melting water of a total area of forty-three square miles, formed mostly by the gla- ciers of the picturesque "Bernese Ober- land." Since 95 per cent. of the annual

sel Lake (Grimselsee), has a storage ca- pacity of three and a half billion cubic feet, while the smaller, Gelmer Lake (Gelmersee), has a capacity about one seventh as great. The total storage ca- pacity of these two lakes corresponds to 230 million kilowatt-hours.

The Grimsel Lake has a surface of twenty-seven million square feet and a total length of approximately three

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 379

47

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MOUNTAINS IN THE BERNESE OBERLAND WITH GRIMSEL LAKE IN THE FOREGROUND.

miles. It is formed by two dams, the Seeuferegg Dam and the Spitallamm Dam. The former is the outstanding feature of the entire development, due to its dimensions, and only those familiar with the climatic conditions at an alti- tude of 6,300 feet above sea-level know how to appreciate the difficulties under which construction work was done. Due to the extreme severity of the winter, work could progress only during a few months a year.

The following figures may give an idea of the size of the Spitallamm Dam,' which at the present time is the largest in Europe: height above bottom of foun- dation, 375 feet; radius, 295 feet; length, 850 feet; amount of concrete, 12,000,000 cubic feet.

The water accumulated in the Grimsel 1 The height of the Hoover Dam, in the Colo-

rado River, is more than twice as great; its capacity is nearly 300 times that of the Spi- tallamm Dam.

THE INNERTKIRCJXEN TRANSFORMER STATION

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380 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

Lake is eonducted through a horizontal tunnel to the Gelmer Lake and from there by means of a steel tube pressure line, eight feet in diameter and 3,700 feet long, to the Handeck Generating Station. The tube covers a difference of altitude of 1,750 feet with a maximum inclination of 72 per cent.

The problem of delivering the power from the Handeck Station to the lolad center presented serious difficulties. On account of the large number of ava- lanches coming down in the neighbor- hood of the generating station every winter, it was not considered safe to use high tension overhead lines, but it was finally decided that a reliable supply could be obtained by means of under- ground cables. Thus a special cable tunnel over three nmiles in length has been built to connect the generating sta- tion with the village of Guttannen. The

power is stepped up at the generating station, from 11,000 volts to 50,000 volts and is transmitted through cable circuits to Guttannen !and from there by over- head lines to the Innertkirchen Trans- former Station. The cable tunnel has been built large enough to permit the circulation of a s,mall electric car which is the only nmeans of communication dur- ing the winter season between the gen- erating station and the villagyes in the lower part of the valley.

As a future extension of this develop- nment it is planned to collect the water at the turbine outlets of the generating station and to conduct it by means of a system of tunnels and pipe lines to an- other generating station which will be built near the present transformer sta- tion. The additional w.ater would mnore than double the capacity of the hydro- electric plant.

THE USE OF THE DIVING HELMET IN BIOLOGICAL STUDY"

THE use of the diving helmet in bio- logical study was first introduced by the late Dr. Alfred G. Mayor, at the Tortu- gas Laboratory of the Carnegie Institu- tion of Washington. Dr. Mayor and his associates used the diving helmet exten- sively, not only at Tortugas, but also around islands of the South Pacific. Dr. William Beebe has also employed the helmet for his studies of the submarine fauna in Haiti and Bermuda.

The form of helmet which these zoolo- gists used was one which had been de- vised for work around yachts where it was necessary to go down under the boat to make examinations and repairs. It is so simple a device that it seems surpris- ing that it has not come into more gen- eral use. It consists essentially of a brass hood with a glass front which fits over the head and rests on the shoulders of the diver and is held down by lead weights which are attached on the front and back sides. From this hood an ordi-

1 Photos by Dr. William Beebe.

nary garden hose runs to an air pumnp located in the boat. The person who is about to go down to examine objects un- der the water stands on a ladder which is let down from the side of the boat, and others in the boat place the helmet over his head as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. He then descends the ladder to the bottom as the man at the pump forces air down into the hood, the excess bub- bling up around the shoulders and chest. With a long hose the diver can wander around for considerable distances. His hands are free and he can carry a basket or bucket with him and place specimens in this, or he can sit down under water and make sketches or notes on a zinc pad as Dr. Beebe is shown doing in Fig. 3. He can also take down a, specially de- vised moving picture camera which is enclosed in a water-tight brass box, as shown in Fig. 4, and can thLs make mo- tion pictures of fishes and other objects at any depth to which sufficient light penetrates. In tropical waters it is pos-

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